“Who am I to dare take up the word and authority of my predecessors? A mere student from bygone days and far-off places, who spent over half his life in a country still farther off; no more than a humble worker in one of Christ’s small fields, a teacher of children and babes in the faith—how can I, the least of all workers, work in this great and glorious and ancient vineyard of Christ? ...
But who am I to oppose God, the Heavenly King without whose will not a hair falls from our heads? ...
‘No,’ I said to myself. ‘Let it be with me as the Lord wills. I will go wherever I am told!’
And so, I have come. O Lord, bless me to begin my work. O Lord, I am yours, and I wish to be yours, everywhere and always. Do with me as you wish in this life and in the life to come. May I be here just a tool in your hands!”
–Address of St. Innocent (Veniaminov) upon his enthronement as Metropolitan of Moscow in 1868.
From “St. Innocent: Apostle to America” by Paul Gilbert (SVS Press, 1979)
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